Chapter 4 - The Mask Slips
Maria couldn't hold back any longer. Panic overriding her fear of losing her livelihood, she stepped out from the shadows of the service doorway and hurried across the marble floor.
"Lily! Lily, stop, sweetie, come here," Maria whispered, her voice tight with terror as she reached out and scooped her daughter into her arms, pressing the little girl's face into her shoulder. "I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry, Mr. Callaway. Everyone, please excuse us. She wandered out, she didn't mean any harm—"
"Put her down," Vanessa hissed, her voice cutting through the polite murmur of the room like a razor blade.
Maria froze, clutching Lily tighter. She kept her eyes glued to the floor, terrified to look up. "Ma'am, please. We'll leave right now. We'll gather our things and clear out. You won't ever have to see us again."
Vanessa stepped forward, her eyes blazing with humiliation. The million-dollar bet was a joke, yes, but the fact that the child had actually won the unspoken contest in the eyes of the guests was an intolerable insult to her vanity.
"You're the maid," Vanessa said, spitting out the words as if they tasted foul. "The hired help. You sneak your feral child into my engagement gala, let her run wild in the middle of a formal reception, and you think you can just scurry away with a simple apology?"
"Vanessa, stop," Richard said, his voice dropping an octave as he strode across the room toward them.
"Don't 'stop' me, Richard!" Vanessa snapped, turning on him with venom in her eyes. "Look at this! This little beggar and her mother have turned our engagement night into a circus! She probably trained the brat to pull this stunt for sympathy—or worse, to extort us for money!"
"That is enough," Richard said, his tone turning glacial. He had spent years building a reputation as a fair, commanding businessman; watching his fiancée publicly berate a terrified mother and a bewildered child churned a deep, ugly knot in his stomach.
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"No, it's not enough!" Vanessa shrieked, her composure finally shattering completely under the weight of three hundred staring eyes. "Fire her! Fire them both right now, throw them out into the street, and make sure they never step foot in this neighborhood again!"
The ballroom was so quiet you could hear the ice melting in the cocktail glasses. Every eye was locked on Richard, waiting to see how the billionaire would handle the outburst.
